Before: Island Hopping A, El Nido, Philippines
There are several island hopping tours in El Nido. The destinations and prices are fixed wherever you book them from. Tour A destinations are Small Lagoon, Big Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, 7th Commando Beach, and Shimizu Island.
Tour B consists of Snake Island, Pinagbuyutan Island, Entalula Beach, Cudugnon Cave, and a Snorkeling site. We did Tour A and B in one day. I won’t recommend you do that if you have more time. Doing that in one day made us miss 7th Commando Beach and Cudugnon Cave.
We started the tour from Marimegmeg beach, a five-minute walk from our hotel. Our first destination was Pinagbuyutan Island, followed by Snake Island. We had lunch at Entalula Island, then we had a good time at Shimizu Island. After that we headed to Secret Lagoon, and then Big Lagoon. We ended our tour after having a great time kayaking in Small Lagoon.
Snake Island (Vigan Island)
If you travel to El Nido, you have to go to Snake Island. There’s a sandbar built by centuries of crashing sea waves, connecting the two parts of the island. Walking on the sand bar to the other end is like walking in the middle of the sea.
Your guide will tell you to go hike a hill and take a picture from there. The view of the water is amazing.
Pinagbuyutan Island (Ellis Island)
I don’t know why most people say Tour A and C are their favorites but if I had to choose between A and B, I would definitely choose Tour B for Pinagbuyutan Island and Snake Island.
Pinagbuyutan Island or Inabuyatan Island (which means Enchanted Island) with its high limestone cliffs - some more than 300 meters high - looked grand from the boat we were in. The coconut tree leaves swayed in the wind as if welcoming us. As we sat on the powdery white sand, the sound of the coconut leaves mingled with the breaking waves. It sounded like music of its own kind.
The glass-like water and the jellyfish swimming hurriedly away, made me love this island a little bit more than the others. Watching a jellyfish in an aquarium at underwater parks is one thing, watching one in the open sea is another.
Entalula Island
This beautiful island is owned by El Nido Resorts, but from the 250 meters stretch of soft-white sand beach, a small part is open for public. That was where we had our lunch. While our guide prepared the lunch, we snorkeled and swam around the clear water. The lunch was more delicious after the swim!
Before we left, our guide brought everything back to the boat - the table, the dishes, the trash… everything. We are not supposed to leave anything behind except our footprints.
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